Culver Academies

Culver provides the best whole person education in the country and is the only college preparatory boarding school offering an intentional and differentiated leadership program for its young women and young men. Students do not merely attend Culver; rather, they create a community through leadership, developing relationships that last a lifetime. Culver excellence is enhanced by legions of loyal alumni who provide unprecedented and innovative resources. When thoughtful educators discuss the qualities necessary for success in today's world, they end up describing Culver.

ACADEMICS

Culver's curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, problem solving, writing, research, artistic expression, and foreign language proficiency through innovative teaching methods and technologically rich classrooms -- all of this via a schedule designed to support the Academies mission with a focus on wellness and community, teaching and learning, flexibility and regularity.

LEADERSHIP

At Culver, leadership training is both an end in itself and the means by which students develop a sense of social responsibility. Culver Military Academy is organized around its own distinctive military system of student leadership, while Culver Girls Academy is modeled on a prefect system. With these distinctive systems of leadership, Culver's students enjoy the benefits of equal leadership opportunities in their separate residential programs, while sharing in the advantages of a coeducational program in most other areas of school life. Through the enactment of leadership ideals made possible in and through these systems, they develop confidence in their abilities to complete difficult and challenging tasks, as well as habits of inquiry and self-discipline central to an education in the virtues.

The Culver military system is a lifestyle that encourages pride in oneself, the living unit, the Corps of Cadets, and Culver. It prepares boys for success by teaching principles of leadership - integrity, discipline, manners, respect - and the classical virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. And it develops traits and characteristics necessary to become a successful person - self-confidence, discipline, commitment, responsibility, ethical behavior, and hard work. Cadets choose one of four units: the infantry, artillery, troop, or band, and participate in the New Cadet System, a one-year program designed to develop students into capable members of the Corps of Cadets through a structured regimen of duties and responsibilities.

The Culver prefect system reveals to girls the existence of their own leadership potential by developing confidence, habits of self-discipline, accountability, and the core virtues central to the whole. Following the leaders before them, girls undergo leadership training and are elected or appointed to a position or responsibility. They ensure regulations are implemented, goals are reached, and that the entire group is involved and engaged. As they accomplish leadership responsibilities, girls continue to learn as they model high personal standards of behavior.

EXTRACURRICULARS

Our students have the opportunity to join clubs, music performance groups, academic teams and athletic teams. All of these activities at Culver are about spirit, sportsmanship, competition, skill, fun, and most importantly, participation. Culver encourages all students to be involved in some physical activity and offers extensive opportunities to stay physically fit and to live a healthy lifestyle.

The philosophy of the college advising effort centers upon a partnership between the student, parents, teachers, and the college adviser. The guiding principle and primary outcome is for each student to have college options that match his or her abilities and interests.

Full time college advisers work individually with each student in creating a college list and in working through the application process. A required guidance class focuses on standardized test strategies/preparation and registration, curriculum discussions, career options, academic progress, and on selecting courses. Culver seniors have a significant variety of college options and each year are accepted into America's best colleges and universities.

The Admissions Committee selects applicants capable of pursuing a rigorous college-preparatory program and becoming effective and responsible citizens and leaders. To be considered for admission, we require an application, essays, interview, teacher evaluations, grade transcripts for the past two years, and the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT). We encourage families to complete the application process by January 15, as enrollment wait pools occur in the spring months.